Standing Figure of Vishnu

In this fragmentary image the god Vishnu, Preserver and Protector of the Universe, is represented as a youthful and physically powerful princely figure with long curling hair.

He wears a high, ornate crown formed with rosettes linked by looped swags, as well as heavy earrings, a necklace, a thick garland swathed round the upper arms, and a lower garment tied at the waist. His nimbus and two additional arms proclaim his divine nature. The four hands and the distinguishing attributes which they held are now missing. This iconography of Vishnu had developed during the Kushan period in the early centuries AD. As with other Hindu and Buddhist icons, it came to full expressive maturity in the great age of the Guptas, which saw an unrivalled flowering of the arts in India.

Nominally inspired by Lucretius' De rerum natura, Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire takes its scientific subject and embellishes it with fantastical creatures from the artist's imagination: Bulls, bears, lions and deer-like creatures with human faces all flee wearily from a fire.

Rubens' portrait of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel dates from about 1629. The Earl was a great collector, and Rubens had painted the earl's wife a few years earlier on a visit to Antwerp. This drawing in pen and ink with a chalk base is unusually informal, reflecting perhaps the comfortable relationship between artist and patron.